DPS's new budget based on hopes of increasing student enrollment

Jun. 20, 2013

Written by

Chastity Pratt Dawsey

Detroit Free Press Education Writer

The Detroit Public Schools budget for next school year is built on the assumption that for the first time in more than a decade the district will increase its enrollment, according to a budget proposal released Thursday.

The district’s $1-billion 2013-14 budget anticipates a 2.7% enrollment increase to about 51,070 students. If that happens, it would be a sharp reversal for a district that has lost more than 100,000 students since 2001, or about 11% of students each of the past several years.

Demographers had projected that DPS would lose about 5,000 students in 2013-14, but officials created a budget that anticipates the district will instead retain or attract 5,000 students through a five-year strategic plan that expands pre-kindergarten, offers art and music after school, improves customer service and other perks.

A new centerpiece of the enrollment effort will be an aggressive school-by-school, block-by-block marketing campaign to inform neighbors and parents about the advantages and programs at each school.

“We’re not planning to fail anymore,” said Michelle Zdrodowski, spokeswoman for the district.

DPS called the proposed budget the mark of a new day for the struggling district. Currently, less than half of the school-age children in the city attend DPS.

However, if enrollment decreases as the demographic trend suggests — and officials acknowledge that the data have been eerily accurate over the years — the budget will have to be cut during the school year, said William Aldridge, chief financial and administrative officer for DPS.

The 2013-14 budget also accounts for six school building closures and projects 665 jobs will be eliminated, Aldridge said. Class size limits for grades four and five will increase by two students to 35.

And the deficit will remain a problem, the proposed budget shows. The 2012-13 school year will end with a deficit of about $6 million, adding to last year’s $76-million deficit for a total of $82 million.

As a result of recent cash-flow problems, DPS’s maintenance and facilities contractors sent 650 workers layoff notices this week effective Aug. 12 because the district is late paying $18 million. The facilities contractors — who employ custodians, engineers, trades workers and groundskeepers — will be paid and workers will remain, Aldridge said.

The 2013-14 school year is projected to end with a $6-million surplus, to put the deficit back at $76 million. The long-term debt is more than $400 million and DPS pays $53 million a year — or $1,038 per pupil in 2013-14 — toward that debt. State aid will fund DPS at a rate of $7,246 per pupil, according to the proposed budget.

Roy Roberts, the state-appointed emergency manager for DPS, said that the budget assumes that the district will not borrow funds on behalf of — and to bail out — the state’s reform district, the Education Achievement Authority.

A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Renaissance High School. Roberts is expected to adopt the budget after the public hearing.